Reigning Ninja A-League Champions Melbourne City have handed American striker Kelli McGroarty her first professional contract, signing the 24-year-old on a one-year deal following a blistering spell in the NPLW last season.<\/p>\n
McGroarty joins City after scoring 33 goals in 25 appearances for Essendon Royals in the NPLW VIC, comfortably claiming the Golden Boot in what was a stellar season.<\/p>\n
The striker\u2019s form improved as the season progressed, scoring 19 goals in her final 14 regular-season appearances to earn a move to the professional ranks.<\/p>\n
TRANSFER CENTRE: Ninja A-League 2026\/27 Transfer Centre: Your club\u2019s moves<\/a><\/p>\n McGroarty previously played NCAA Division I football in the United States, representing La Salle University and the University of Iowa.<\/p>\n She will provide another attacking option for Michael Matricciani\u2019s squad as City prepare to defend their Premiership and Championship crowns in 2026\/27.<\/p>\n CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL 2026\/27 NINJA A-LEAGUE FIXTURE LIST<\/a><\/p>\n Furthermore, City will also compete in the AFC Women\u2019s Champions League for a third consecutive season.<\/p>\n \u201cMy time in Australia has been incredible so far, and I\u2019m so excited to now have the opportunity to sign my first professional contract with Melbourne City,\u201d McGroarty said.<\/p>\n \u201cI came here wanting to challenge myself, so to earn the opportunity to take the next step with a Club like City is really special. <\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t wait to get started and test myself at the professional level.\u201d<\/p>\n Melbourne City Director of Football Michael Petrillo said McGroarty had earned her opportunity at the professional level through her performances.<\/p>\n \u201cThe impact Kelli has made since arriving in Australia has been impossible to ignore, and scoring 33 goals in her first NPLW season is an outstanding achievement,\u201d Petrillo said.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s earned this opportunity through her performances and gives us another dynamic option in attack. We\u2019re excited to see what she can achieve in her first season as a professional.\u201d<\/p>\n The signing of McGroarty represents City\u2019s eighth foray into the transfer market following their double-winning campaign.<\/p>\n In one of the signings of the off-season, Matildas striker Cortnee Vine<\/a> has joined the club following a stint in the United States whilst former Newcastle Jets striker\u00a0Melina Ayres<\/a> has also re-joined the club.<\/p>\n Meanwhile\u00a0the club has also added key A-Leagues and International experience to the squad by signing the likes of Avaani Prakash<\/a>,\u00a0Taylor Ray<\/a>,\u00a0Aimee Medwin,<\/a>\u00a0Jessika Nash<\/a> and\u00a0Momo Hayashi<\/a>.<\/p>\n Matricciani and his football staff have been forced to reshape their squad ahead of the upcoming campaign following a string of high profile exits, with Matildas ace and Golden Boot winner Holly McNamara<\/a> among those to have left.<\/p>\n Furthermore, Championship winners Bryleeh Henry, Alexia Apostolakis<\/a>,\u00a0Laura Hughes<\/a>,\u00a0Ayana Aoyagi, Caitlin Karic, Chinaza Uchendu, Ellie Wilson<\/a>, Leah Davidson and\u00a0Taylor Otto<\/a> have all moved on from the club.<\/p>\n Melbourne City kick off their Ninja A-League Premiership\/Championship defence with an away clash against Wellington Phoenix, in what is a repeat of last season\u2019s Grand Final.<\/p>\n MAIN IMAGE CREDIT: @sheshootzsoccer (Instagram)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reigning Ninja A-League Champions Melbourne City have handed American striker Kelli McGroarty her first professional contract, signing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[342,1417,4640,260,152],"class_list":["post-86665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-a-league-women","tag-a-leagues","tag-alwfeatured","tag-melbourne","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}